Tabletop Gaming is Alive and Well

Thanks to The Save or Die Podcast for reading my email and passing along my shameless piug for this blog.

Hear the podcast at this link
http://saveordie.info/?p=1034

I mentioned back in September that I was listening to this podcast and how much it reminded me why I love my hobby. It also spurred me to become more active in creation. I have started working on a campaign world to set adventures in. My children and I have begun to play again (using a house-ruled version of the Moldvay set, despite my intent to return to my Holmes roots.) And I am working on some other ideas with an intent to publish.

The gaming hobby is so much more available now than it seemed back in the 80's. Finding a gaming store used to be a 90 minute bus ride to a hole in the wall, or a single shelf at a tiny bookstore. Now the local gaming stores have more open gaming demos, so you can try out a game before you invest in it. And finding the game you want can be as easy as typing the name into your browser. The hobby feels more alive and less secretive now.

What is your gaming experience? Do you want to start some? Give it a try; role-playing is not dress-up, and its not funny voices surrounded by dim, dark walls and flickering candles, as some of the lurid movie-versions would have many believe (I'm looking at you Tom!)

Did I mention I was (am) a nerd? Did I need to?

I grew up watching a healthy (read: insane) amount of tv and movies. At age 6, I can remember running, screaming out of the theater during The Towering Inferno. (As a parent myself, I would not take my kindergartner to a movie like that, but I am not putting down my parents. Those were different times and I turned out well, in general.) My parents made up for it three years later when they took me to the drive-in to see Star Wars. I don’t hate the prequels, but the original trilogy has a special place in my heart.

Sunday mornings as a toddler I spent looking at the comics while my Papaw sipped his coffee and Nana pored over the editorials. (These were the same Grandparents responsible for giving me my first Dungeons and Dragons set--the blue, Holmes edition--best grandparents ever!)

Beyond the sunday funnies, I read anything and everything I could get my hands on. By the time I reached High school I had already read the novels being required by the English teachers. Teachers loved me, students hated me; the life of a nerd in the 80’s. Did I mention I was (am) a nerd? Did I need to? Enough about me.
See you again next week!